Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

NomDePlume25 t1_jdwbclp wrote

Reply to comment by Ground2ChairMissile in Sensitivity Changes Keep Authors Relevant (but are also a cash machine for their great great great grand kids) by mkbt

Yeah, I was thinking that was the case. Les Miserables is actually a really good example, because there are older translations that are in the public domain. You can read the original French text or an English translation from the 19th century on Project Gutenberg, but not any of the translations that are still under copyright. I believe there's even a copyrighted translation that is essentially a more modernized/easy-to-read version of an older public domain one, although I can't remember the translators' names off the top of my head. In any case, I assume these edited re-releases will work the same way.

3

ZeMastor t1_je5re6e wrote

I concur. Victor Hugo does have living descendants, and one of them tried to stop a "sequel" from being written:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jan/31/books.france

He lost the case, and rightfully so. He's several generations removed from the author, and whatever rightful royalties Hugo and his immediate family deserved has long expired, as well as the right to control the IP. The sequel might suck, but there is no denying the right to write one.

Everything by great authors like Hugo, Dumas, Dickens, Twain, etc. is in public domain and I'm always for modernized translations to encourage a modern audience to read them. No need to beg anyone, or pay off some estate or long-removed descendant to do this!

Les Miz is best known for the 1862 Charles Wilbour translation, and that one is free on the Internet. The more modern translations started with Norman Denny (1976) , and others, such as Fahnestock, Donougher and Rose had stepped in with alternate new translations, with the language varying from "slightly modernized but still based on Wilbour" to "ultra-modern using contemporary slang and terminology".

https://welovetranslations.com/2021/07/29/whats-the-best-translation-of-les-miserables/

1